Floods

After experiencing decades of floods, Cambodia’s microfinance institutions say they no longer have problems disbursing loans during the rainy season, according to the head of Cambodia’s Microfinance Association (CMA). A survey issued early this year by a coterie of international aid organisations, including Oxfam, Care, PACT ...

More than 250 families in Preah Vihear province’s Preah Vihear City were evacuated from their homes yesterday and moved to higher ground due to flooding caused by persistent heavy rains that started last week, the provincial governor said. Preah Vihear Governor Oum Mara siad that the ...

ADB (Asian development bank) pledged to offer $55 million loan for infrastructure restoration from flood damage last year in Cambodia. At the same time, AusAid also offered 5.25 million US dollars, and the Cambodian government will spend 6.39 million US dollars for the whole infrastructure ...

A breached flood protection dyke near Prey Ven city that, had it burst during the disastrous 2011 flooding, would have added a further 30,000 to the almost 52,000 households evacuated, is one project nearing completion in Cambodia’s Flood Damage Emergency Reconstruction Project. But the Asian Development ...

A fisheries official accused of involvement in the clearing of an area of protected flooded forest in Kampong Thom province in July was questioned at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court yesterday. Korn Chanseiha, chief of the Fisheries Administration’s Stong district office, is one of about 20 officials ...

The National Committee for Disaster Management was preparing to ensure end-of-season floods did not compound the woes caused by months of drought, officials said yesterday. To minimise the effects of flooding, the NCDM had sent a request to the Council of Ministers for 16,000 tonnes of food and ...

A district governor and two fisheries officials are among 10 people who will be questioned at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court next week over the destruction of flooded forest to make way for dry-season rice fields in Kampong Thom province, an official said yesterday. On July 27, ...

Large dump trucks with beds full of rusted, twisted metal and aluminium canss rolled in, one after another, to unload their cargo at Phnom Penh’s largest scrap yard in Dangkao district. “All the metal must be exported because there are no recycling factories here [in Cambodia],” ...

When 41-year-old Pheng Seng’s brick-making business was ravaged by flood in Kratie province a year ago, he lost about US$5,000. Kratie town also flooded this time a year ago. It was so bad that speedboats were seen zipping through the streets past submerged motorcycles with ...

Cambodia has been rebuilding after recently being hit by devastating floods that affected over one million citizens. These sudden natural disasters are tough to predict but the United Nations believes that more needs to be done to limit their impact. The BBC’s correspondent in Cambodia, Guy De ...

Rice production grew by 6.42 percent last year, despite vast tracts of paddy being devastated by flooding, according to figures released yesterday by the Ministry of Agriculture. In the 2011 to 2012 season, 8.78 million tons of rice were harvested from 2.78 million hectares of ...

The Ministry of Economy and Finance yesterday signed a US$60.3 million loan package with Asian Development Bank to aid in reconstruction efforts after the Kingdom last year suffered its worst floods in a decade. ...

As dignitaries marked the groundbreaking of a project to improve Phnom Penh’s defenses against flooding yesterday, a complaint had already been filed against the project’s contractor for impeding a public road. The Japanese government is putting $46 million into a new phase of the city’s flood ...

The Phnom Penh municipality is set to begin contruction on Monday for a project funded by the Japanese government, in order to improve both the infastructure of the city’s drainage system and its capability to handle flood water. ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen has called on microfinance institutions to reduce interest rates and expand repayment periods for the tens of thousands of families affected by last year’s devastating floods. Addressing microfinance institutions (MFIs) on Tuesday during a conference at the Ministry of Rural Development, ...

The curse of Cambodia’s 2011 floods continues for those most affected, as they fall deeper into debt from unsustainable cyclical debt practices, a consortium of international NGOs said yesterday. The consortium of Care, Oxfam, Pact and Catholic Relief Services released the results of their January survey ...

The floodwaters may have receded, but their effects are far from over, with the government, NGOs and international donors saying yesterday they are still assessing the damage as they shift to long-term rehabilitation. Last November, Minister of Economy and Finance Keat Chhon said the government would ...

Cambodia’s total paddy rice output reached 8.4 million tonnes in 2011, up from 8.25 million tonnes last year, according an initial assessment by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Provincial MAFF officials from across the Kingdom met in Phnom Penh on Saturday, when data was ...

Thailand’s ongoing recovery efforts from recent flooding have led to a resurgence in the country’s demand for labor, resulting in a record number of Cambodian migrants crossing the border in search of work, officials and experts said yesterday. Ouk Keorattanak, Banteay Manteay provincial deputy administration chief, ...

Prime Minister Hun Sen yesterday urged provincial governors to investigate the deaths of the about 250 people who died during the flooding disaster this year in order to develop a strategy to reduce deaths from flooding. If officials could identify the factors that caused the deaths ...

A regional meeting on disaster risk reduction and climate change wrapped up yesterday with officials pointing to the recent flooding as a reason to take immediate action to prepare for disasters. “We must not sleep or wait for donors to take action,” Ross Sovann, deputy secretary-general ...

Although floodwaters are receding, an unknown number of villages in several provinces remain accessible only by boat, and the extent of the damage has yet to be fully assessed, according to aid workers and the latest “situation update” from the United Nations Disaster Management Team. “In ...

All families evacuated during the worst floods Cambodia has seen in more than a decade have now returned home, the floodwaters have receded and relief efforts are coming to a close, officials said yesterday. Two hundred and fifty people, at least half of them children, died ...

Cambodia plans to spend nearly US$200 million to rebuild after the worst floods in a decade hit the country in September and October. The floods require an immediate response, Minister of Economy and Finance Keat Chhon said yesterday at a meeting of the Council for the ...